My View On The Importance Of Using Hydrofracking
I am a local small business owner in Lower Manhattan. I have lived in the city for the past 15 years and grew up near Albany in upstate New York. I am writing this letter to show my support of using hydrofracking for the state’s natural gas production. As a resident of New York State for my whole life, I believe that it is important for you to understand my position and why other citizens may feel similarly. Hydrofracking is quite beneficial to many locals and for our state in general.
Firstly, with using hydrofracking, more jobs can be developed for our state, as seen in other places like Pennsylvania (Lillpopp, 2011). This will help to decrease the level of unemployment in New York State as well as provide more job opportunities for residents looking to work in the energy sector, potentially keeping many of these individuals instead of them moving out of state. New York is in great need to keep workers in the STEM fields in state, and this could be one way to encourage people (especially young people) to stay and develop the sector further.
In addition to this, even during the times when the economy was not the best, with the drilling jobs through Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, there was still job growth. In line with increasing employment opportunities, hydrofracking is also believed to be able to help boost local economies, with many arguing that hydrofracking will help both the public and private sectors (Christopherson, 2011). There is more economic opportunity given to the communities and this helps to produce revenue from gas development, which typically helps to raise employment in retail, heavy equipment operation, and trucking. Not only does this help businesses large and small (much like my own), but it also helps to increase the average property values of the community (Christopherson, 2011).
Many may think that hydrofracking automatically causes environmental destruction and while I agree that hydrofracking has environmental impacts, I believe that implementing proper policy and regulations on companies that are planning to drill in New York can mitigate an adverse outcome from the use of hydrofracking. It will be important that areas with fragile ecosystems or areas that are too important to risk damage will be prohibited from gas extraction. The use of new technologies to help treat produced water so it can be reused and improve wells so that they are engineered and designed to protect water resources (Office of Fossil Energy, 2018) are just a few other ways to help decrease the environmental impact of hydrofracking and should be considered when planning.
As stated previously, while I understand that there are some environmental consequences that are resultant of hydrofracking, I believe that with proper legislation and policy implementation, the use of hydrofracking will help our economy and further push our state to the forefront of natural gas technology and development. Natural gas is a clean-burning energy source and drilling in shale plays throughout has become more economically viable with well-drilling technology throughout the United States. Exploring this technology will help to reduce our dependence on foreign energy resources, and create a more robust business climate as well as create jobs. I truly appreciate you taking the time to read my letter, and look forward to the next steps our state takes towards the production of natural gas and finding new ways to help boost our economy as well as improve the lives of my fellow citizens.
